When You Hear the Knell of a Requiem Bell by Flashbeagle

Chapter Nine

Disclaimer: See previous chapters.

Chapter Nine

            "Who are you?" Madame Leota asked.

            "Shouldn't you already know that, if you're a seer of all?" I asked, mockingly.

            "You are Kimberly Fox."

            "Damn straight! Finally someone in this house gets it!" I rejoiced. I noticed Madame Leota looking at me, and then I remembered. Madame Leota! The gypsy who killed Emily Gracey! That should have scared me, but it didn't.

            "What would you like to ask the spirits?"

            Normally, I would've laughed my ass off, but for some reason, I didn't.

            "Um, how did Katherine Gracey die?"

            Madame Leota closed her eyes. "Dark spirits come forth!"

            "Maybe this was a bad idea." I said, as what looked like black fog seeped into the room

           All the fog congregated into the crystal ball, and Madame Leota's face faded away, and I was able to see a picture of a large ballroom, with lots of people standing around, and talking, in elaborate costumes. Edward Gracey is in the center of all of them. Ramsley, I'm guessing, is there next to him.

            "Master, I think we should start." Yep. That's definitely Ramsley.

            "No." Edward said, looking down. "Katherine's not here yet. I won't start without her."

            Ramsley nodded to him. "Alright, Master."

            The picture then switched to a dark night, and a crashed carriage off to the side of a road.  The vision slows down, and suddenly I know what happened.

            I turned away from the crystal ball, the scene playing over and over in my mind.

            "Are you alright?" Leota asked.

            "So that's what happened. "I reflected. "She was coming home one night, her carriage crashed, and she died." I didn't want to look back at the vision. Seeing some girl who looks exactly like me dead in a crashed carriage is not exactly something I'm too keen to see. Although I will admit it's better than her getting murdered or committing suicide or something. If a situation like that can be made better.

            It continued on to show time passing, and the guests at the ball getting impatient.

            "Master, I truly think that now-"

            "No!" Edward shouted. "Not without Katherine."

            "But, Master, I-"

            "NO!"

            Then, a strange knocking resonated on the door.

            Suddenly, I know what happens. It all flashes through my mind. I see a pale faced messenger talking to Edward. I can see, and hear, Edward wailing and sobbing.

            I shut my eyes and instead looked at the apparition on the crystal ball. 

The vision changed, showing a darkened Gracey Manor, with Edward, a defeated look in his eyes, standing alone, high in the first portrait room of the house. He's holding one end of a noose in his hands. The other end, I can see, is tied up on the ceiling.

            And then, the vision ends, thank God. I really don't want to see someone commit suicide. I felt really bad for him, though. I mean, even though he's a scary ghost who thinks I'm his dead wife reborn, he's also just a widower who adored his wife and really misses her. I thought about what my dad would do if something happened to my mom, and what David would do if something happened to his wife Corrine. They'd be absolutely, totally depressed and devastated. Though I don't think they would kill themselves.

            "Are all your questions answered?" Madame Leota asked me.

            "I guess." I said.

            "You have another question. One you fear the answer to."

            I gulped. She was right on the money.

            "Don't give me the answer to that." I said.

            I changed the subject. "Why are there 999 ghosts here?"

            "Spirits from the graveyard, from long ago, manifested inside these walls."         

            "Um, okay. Thanks." I mumbled.

            "Be on guard tonight, Kimberly Fox." The head of Madame Leota said, before she faded away

            "Wait! What does that mean?" I asked, but it was too late. She was gone. Then, I remembered something I heard Edward Gracey saying yesterday.

            Tomorrow night must go right. It must.

            Katherine Gracey died on Mardi Gras…tonight is Mardi Gras! Oh my God. I was trembling with fear.

            I can think of a million things that could possibly happen to me, and I don't see myself surviving any of them.

End Notes: Sorry this is late! I intended to update this yesterday, but I had to log off earlier than I expected last night.  

So…it's a doozie! You get two chapters today! You know, in the original draft of this story, Kimberly says "Oh my God" 18 times within the first half of it alone.